WASHINGTON ­ A former Alaska
business owner was sentenced Thursday to six months in prison
on public corruption charges, Acting Assistant Attorney General
Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division announced. Chief U.S.
District Judge John W. Sedwick for the District of Alaska also
ordered William Weimar, 68, to serve six months of home confinement,
two years of supervised release following his prison term and
to pay a $75,000 fine.

On Aug. 12, 2008, Weimar pleaded
guilty to a two-count information charging him with conspiracy
to commit honest services mail and wire fraud and structuring
financial transactions. In court documents, Weimar admitted to
conspiring with a candidate running for an elected position in
the Alaska state legislature, the owner of a company that provided
consulting and advertising services to the candidate, and others
by illegally paying the consultant approximately $20,000 in 2004
for expenses incurred by the candidate's campaign.

Weimar admitted that he, the
candidate and the consultant agreed to make these payments in
a way that concealed the payments and deceived the public. Weimar
also admitted that he manipulated and structured the illegal
payments to avoid currency reporting requirements for financial
institutions under federal law.

Weimar admitted to making the
payments to secure the candidate's election to the Alaska state
legislature, to deprive the public of the honest services that
the candidate would provide as a state legislator, and to gain
the candidate's official support for legislation that would benefit
Weimar's ongoing financial interest in a private prison project.

To date, there have been nine
criminal convictions arising out of the ongoing investigation
into public corruption in the state of Alaska.

On Oct. 27, 2008, U.S. Senator
Theodore F. Stevens was convicted of seven counts of making false
statements following a jury trial in the District of Columbia.
Stevens is awaiting sentencing.

Thomas T. Anderson, a former
elected member of the Alaska House of Representatives, was convicted
in July 2007 and sentenced to five years in prison for extortion,
conspiracy, bribery and money laundering for soliciting and receiving
money from an FBI confidential source in exchange for agreeing
to perform official acts to further a business interest represented
by the source.

Peter Kott, a former Speaker
of the Alaska House of Representatives, was convicted in September
2007 and sentenced to six years in prison for extortion, bribery
and conspiracy.

Victor H. Kohring, a former
elected member of the Alaska House of Representatives, was convicted
at trial in November 2007 for attempted extortion, bribery and
conspiracy, and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Four other individuals, including
two executives of VECO Corporation and James Clark, the chief
of staff to a former governor of Alaska, have pleaded guilty
to felony public corruption charges. John Cowdery, a current
member of the Alaska State Senate, was indicted on July 10, 2008,
and is awaiting trial.

The case is being prosecuted
by Trial Attorneys Nicholas A. Marsh and Edward P. Sullivan of
the Public Integrity Section, headed by Chief William M. Welch
II, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph W. Bottini and James
A. Goeke from the District of Alaska. The ongoing investigation
is being led by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal
Investigative Division.